3 The Canaanite and the Perizzite are yet in the land. A restless popish and Jacobit party projecting a new revolution of affairs; as fanguinary and cruel yet as ever, and retaining as much of the old malignity and enmity against the covenanted work of reformation as ever, only waiting an opportunity to exert it, and many things in the prefent aspect of affairs portending that they may be our fcourge in the hand of our difpleafed Lord, for our mifimproving mercies and deliverances, fatisfying ourieives with our own things not minding the things of Chrift, chiefly for our undervaluing the offers of the bieffed fon of God in the gospel, and visible breach of national obligations to be for him and his cause. Seeing then fuch clouds are gathering and threatening a difnal tempeft, let us arm ourselves with the same mind, to ftand up for the truth upon all hazards, whether we be called of God to do or to fuffer, for the joint interelt of true religion and national liberty, for thefe like Hypocrates twins weep or laugh, live or die together. Rightecuinefs exalteth a nation faid the wife Solemon, and Theodofius the emperor owned that the establishment of a Christian state depends chiefly upon piety towards God. On the other hand, civil liberty is an excellent bulwark to religion, without which its purity cannot long be preferved; for as the fame emperor faid, multa inter ecclefiam et rempublicam cognatio intercedere folet, ex fe invicem pen. dent, et utraque profperis alterius fucceffibus incrementa fumit. There is a great fibnefs betwixt the church and the comm.onwealth, they depend the one upon the other, and either is advanced by the profperity and fuccefs of the other. 'Tis to be feared, this time of eafe and outward peace has fo effeminate and foftened our fpirits, that we'll find it hard to face a ftorm; we nay complain with Eufebius, res noftræ nimia libertate in mollitiam et fegniticm degenerarunt, too much liberty has made us foft and fluggifh. The vigorous exercile of chriftian difc pline has been much intermitted, and therefore we have ground to expect fevere correction from the hand of God. Cyprian obferves that this was the procuring caufe of God's correcting the church in his time; quia traditam nobis divinitus difciplinam pax longa corruperat, jacentem fidem, et pene dixerim dormientem, cenfura coeleftis erexit. Becaufe long peace had corrupted the divinely inftituted ftituted difcipline, therefore there needed heavenly chaf tisement to awaken the faith of the church which was lying low, and almost fast afleep. All thefe dying witneffes affure us of judgments abiding this church and nation, and our prefent condition feems to fay, that we are the people that are to meet with them; how much need then had we of the Christian armour, the divine Pano-、 plia, which made thefe Chriftians proof against all the fiery darts of Satan and the wicked; and of the holy submiffion which made them bear the indignation of the Lord patiently, because they had finned against him. Having thus briefly ufhered thee into the following fheets, Chriftian and candid reader, I fhall detain thee no longer from perufing them, fave only by the way to take notice of thefe few advertisements. 1. It is not pretended, That here all the Speeches and Teftimonies of thofe that fuffered in Scotland fince the year 1680; for many of them, which no doubt are extant, have not come into the hands of the publishers of this collection, and fome of them that were in their hands, did fo far coincide with others in matter and phrafe, that they left them unpublished, with fome remark upon them, to keep up the memory of these honourable sufferers, being defirous that the book should not fwell to fuch a bulk, as might make it less useful to country people, who have not much money to buy, or leafure to read bulky volumes. And, if encouragement be found in this attempt, there may more of them come to be published afterwards. Only this, the collectors of these testimonies can fay that they have left out none, which were in their hands, that they conceived might be for the benefit of the public, upon any finiftrous view or account; and, if any fhall find any alteration in any of them from their own manufcripts, (except it be in the grammar, wherein they took fome little freedom, where neceffity required it), they are to impute it to the variety of copies, whereof they had feveral, and chofe that which they conceived moft genuine. 2. As for the Teftimonies of the banished, they being much the fame, as to all material points, with thefe of the dying witneffes, they are omitted, and a lift of their names added in the Appendix. 3. The laft fpeeches of thofe, who fuffered on account of the earl of Argyle's attempt, in the year 1685, are advisedly advisedly pretermitted, both becaufe fome of them are May the God and Father of our Lord Jefus Chrift, INDEX. A Letter of his to fome friends before he went abroad 8 The Teftimony of Mr Walter Smith The laft Teftimony of Mr James Boig David Hackftoun of Rathillet his interrogations 13 20 23 26 28 31 A Letter to a Gentlewoman of his Acquaintance 39 41 and 42 43 The Teftimony of John M'Colm 49 The Teftimony of Mr James Skeen 58 His Letter to the Profeffors in the fhire of Aberdeen 61 Two Letters to his Fellow-prifoner N The Teftimony of Archbald Stewart The Testimony of John Potter 66 76 The Interrogations of Ifabel Alifon, and her dying Testimony The Teftimony of Marion Harvie The Teftimony of William Gouger, Rob. Sangster and Chriftopher Miller The Teftimony of Laurence Hay 85 and 91 95 102 112 117 123 127 135 142 148 156 163 His letter to John Anderfon Prifoner in Dumfries 164. The Teftimony of John Nisbet younger 204 206 208 209 Anfwers by John-Wilfon writer in Lanark, before feven or eight of the council, with his answers. before the council Reasons of his anfwers, and reflections thereupon 216 218 223 His Testimony 224 A Relation concerning Mr John Dick 278 The joint Teftimony of Thomas Harknefs, Andrew 279 The joint Teftimony of James Lawfon and Alexan- 280 |